Ghost Adventures 21.3 "Union Brewery of Death"

                                           
From the outset why did this ep feel so familiar, almost a case of deja vu, demons/negativity aside.  Union Brewery, Virginia City was a bar/brothel and was reported to be haunted by something dark, as well as possibly having a portal of some sort.  This I thought was pertinent especially when Aaron felt attacked in the basement and the stick figures on the SLS as they seemed to vanish so quickly.  The same when Jay was in the basement later and caught that emanating light anomaly in the corner.  It was either hiding out maybe to escape the infrasound or heading towards a portal.  Zak interviewing Dawn who spoke of her late husband, Nick and how she found him in the upstairs apartment.  She felt he was obsessed with the building.  Perhaps it wasn't the building per se, but the entity haunting it.  Zak again asking leading questions, such as husband being two different people.

He spoke with her friends, Jackie and Dan.  Jackie spoke of being touched on her thigh and how she found herself kissing another woman on her neck.  Reportedly, a woman was raped in this building in the day and a woman and her two children died in a fire there.  Which Christina, the medium has encountered on previous occasions and told her they couldn't cross over as they were being held there by a dark man. Christina saying there is something non-human here via a portal.  Aaron felt too ill and didn't want to call it quits on the investigation.  He was left upstairs on his own, whilst the three of them went to the basement.  Though Zak didn't go in there alone, but Jay did when he and Billy investigated the apartment upstairs.

Split screen again to show what was happening to Christina and what Dawn was saying to show the similarities. The voice was more of a growl than actually speaking.  Christina faints after she comes out from the basement.  Dan says the building affected Dawn's husband.  Also a medium saying she saw a woman getting attacked on a table.  The entity kills all men and possesses women.  The stick figure looked as though it was pounding Aaron on his head.  The first voice Billy and Aaron hear sounds like she's saying "Dawn" not "go."  Orbs/anomalies are caught in the basement and one appears to go through Billy. 

They catch another anomaly by the bedroom door and Jay uses infrasound to aggravate the entity in an attempt to make the spirit leave.  Zak uses the APF Processor by Gary Galka, sure he's used that before, with the SB7.  The female voice at 32.02 sounds like she says "help."  33.14 sounds like "goodbye."  As well as capturing some sort of an entity on a Polaroid photo.

Belgravia Series 1 Episode 1

                                               
Another series from the pen of Julian Fellowes and yes it is rather Downton Abbey wouldn't you say, even the music has a distinct air of Downton to it.  Whereas the opening titles are more Sanditon.  As with Vanity Fair, this begins with the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Duke of Wellington's impending victory at Waterloo.  Focusing on the Trenchard family, with the father, James (Philip Glenister) being the one responsible for acquiring supplies for the army: a Jack of all trades and known as 'Magician'.  A victualler.  He wants to attend the ball given by the Duchess of Richmond (Diana Kent) and his daughter, Sophia (Emily Reid) has acquired three invites for each of them from the Edward Lord Bellasis (Jeremy Neumark Jones) also the nephew of the Duchess.  A cad in disguise, only Sophia's too smitten to see through the veneer.  Not heeding the warnings of her mother, Anne (Tamsin Greig) who is loathed to attend the ball.  And no she doesn't think she married below her status with her husband as she tells Sophia.  (Pronounced So-phi-ya.)

Anne thinks the ball will be a disaster anyway and she doesn't need to be against it.  The Duchess of Richmond is also loathe to have them here, after all they're just 'commoners' trying to muscle in on this society do, irrespective of there being a war on.  Felt more like a last farewell for the military who were anyone with a title.  As it was also attended by the Prince of Orange.  Sophia still besotted with Edward can't bear it when they leave immediately for the battlefield with the advancement of Napoleon and Waterloo.

Victory is sealed and Bellasis is lost which leaves Sophia heartbroken but also hiding a secret.  The drama moves on 26 years to Belgravia, London and we learn that Sophia is dead, she died shortly after the battle.  At this point and her conversation with the Duchess's sister, Belasis' mother, Lady Brockenhurst (Harriet Walter) you get the impression either Sophia isn't dead or she's been kept in hiding re a baby.  So as to avoid embarrassment, as Anne said as much in the beginning.  It was all about reputation.  Anne attends a tea thrown by the Duchess of Bedford and it is her idea to do so, since they can sit with anyone they want to and leave when they want to.  Here she encounters the Duchess again as she catches her plate from falling, reminiscing on old times and speaking of Sophia.  She's overheard by Lady Brockenhurst (sounds like Brocklehurst from Jane Eyre) who later speaks with Anne privately.  Flashing back to the soldiers coming to balls at the house and Sophia dancing with Bellasis.  It is a strained meeting as there isn't much to tell about him and Sophia. 

At dinner with Anne, Oliver, their son (Richard Goulding) and his wife, Susan (Alice Eve) who Anne dislikes immensely and the feeling is mutual.  The conversation is strained and they don't want Oliver to go beyond the status he is accustomed to or to rise above it.  Having a full blown disagreement in front of the servants and so of course, you get the servants gossiping downstairs, as in Downton with varying views on the family, even after Turton (Paul Ritter) has said they shouldn't speak so as they pay their wages.  Yet joins in with them.  How very droll, not.

Anne wants to tell Lady Brockenhurst about her grandson, but Trenchard disagrees as he doesn't want his daughter to be seen as a "harlot."  Another flashback to Sophia marrying Bellasis and having been given permission by her father, who wanted better things for her and honestly the status wouldn't hurt him either in business.  Sophia tells her she's pregnant and how she was duped into marrying him.  Thus explaining the look of horror on her face at the ball when she spots the parson, one of the military men.  She'd also hate being known as a "street walker."  Thus they go away and under an assumed name up north, she gives birth to a son and dies from complications of bleeding out.

Eventual comparisons will be made to Downton, obviously since it's that similar, but trying to maintain a modicum of difference.  Exposition on Thomas Cubbitt, architect was funny in the sense that he was well known, but did we really need the long clunky detail of how Trenchard fit into their line of work.  As well as Oliver, tad snooty, brought up that way, but then being made to live it down as he will be given a meagre little house to live in, even if as one of the servants stated, Susan brought money to the family.  Which doesn't help Anne any as she was so enamoured with Sophia, as she tells the duchess how they shouldn't have favourites and the implication being Sophia was hers.

Ghost Adventures 21.2 "Franklin Castle"

                                                        
Franklin Castle, Cleveland, Ohio. This place had a fascination for me as I'm sure it did for many others and not just cos of the stories behind it, but the feel and look of the place.  However this episode has shed a very different light on it, or rather darkness.  Firstly here we go again with the negativity attached to a place.  Whether it is cursed or not is all hearsay really, after all who can account for people and their perceptions, or stories that get passed down, as well as other factors or superstitions.  There is only so much we can see/experience through what is obtained through research or attained through spirits and such responses.  As for the curse and whether it was on the Tiedemann family, how it was placed, or whether it was on the building itself or the land is all assumption.  The Castle is said to have been built over another house which was razed.

Zak interviewed firsthand author and resident historian Bill Krecji outside of the building on the grounds, whilst Billy and Aaron investigated inside in most of the main rooms as the place is massive.  Zak referring to "unbiased evidence"  they would gather cos spirits never lie.  Bill told him about the family and what he was able to find out to write and once again I stress no book on a person or place is definitive and will always be subjective in content in many respects.  He talked of how he didn't believe that Tiedemann was 'evil' and that he actually murdered one of his illegitimate daughters.  That the medium who lived there claimed he was and also to have gotten responses from him.  As she is deceased there isn't any way of knowing what she encountered or didn't.  Also was she a true bona fide medium, there certainly are charlatans out there as we are all aware.  He refers to bones being inside the wall, that doesn't mean he, Hannes Tiedemann actually put them there, he wasn't the one doing the construction.  Perhaps that was the onset of the curse and that could have been how the family was cursed.  Suppositions carry no weight without concrete proof.

Zak having doubts about what Bill told him as this place was affecting him since he lives there in the Winter months.  Sure a place can affect someone but those things are just again assumptions since there is no evidence either way on what the family was like or Tiedemann himself.  And you know what, reputation dies with the person cos if he was around today they would have definitely sued for defamation, he does have descendants.  Six of his children passed here. His first wife, Louisa, also passed in the house.  Bill saying the curse began by the medium in the 1980's when she lived here.

He also interviewed Helen who lived there with her husband and moved out when her son was born. They recorded voices in the closet of a woman being slapped by a man and screaming and heard babies crying and she said she was pushed down the stairs several times.  However Zak says her being pushed was not a warning as she put it; probably something more sinister.  Helen would see an older woman in black (See below.)
Which Zak showed when he felt he was being dragged down with a rope on the stairs too and Billy stopped him from maybe falling almost.  Ha.  I wrote about Zak and stairs six years ago, how close did that come now.  Anyway when he said rope around him I thought of Most Haunted and the ep in 30 East Drive, Pontefract where one of them was pushed down the stairs tied with a rope!  As for the handprint that appeared on the IR camera which was debunked as being one of theirs, was it so difficult to remember if any of them had touched the wall and surely there must have been some sort of footage on any of their cameras.

Zak's interviewing this ep was very leading, as if he was trying to put words in their mouths and get them to answer what he wanted to hear.  Such as Hannes being a murderer and placing the bones here in the house.  Referring to the 39 year old man, Carl Tiedemann committing suicide.  His death being referred to as, "peculiar nervous tension" is a general term and can refer to almost anything.  Again implying that he was cursed and 'died suspiciously.'  Carl was August's son.  August was a surviving child of Tiedemann.   Zak does refer to the arsonist who set fire to the building in 1999 but not in any detail.
He interviews Zac who lived there in Summer 2018.  He dreamed of an old lady questioning him about someone who was murdered in the house.  Again leading question as to whether he thought she she was "in tune with the house."  Why ask it that way.

Aaron and Billy's investigation of the castle turned up knocking sounds which they attributed to stomping, not to banging or doors closing.  Maybe someone was tap dancing which is what it sounds like.  Aaron feels cold upstairs but hot in the second floor parlour.  Zak saying he likes playing evidence in the room where it was received isn't something he's done much of as he says he likes doing it quite a lot.  He feels the energy is strong on the third floor.  Where they feel hot and Aaron gets goosebumps.  Aaron mentions the nightmares he had where a psychic woman was telling him about the house.  Why does Zak refer to it as a "dream that occurs to selective people" after speaking to just one person.  As well as later getting an EVP  "die."

Billy used the Direct Link asking "who are you?" and gets the response "six" perhaps in reference to six children.  On the Geophone "large -  general - spirits"   Zak asks the spirit to do something for him and he gets a tap.  Aaron recalls saying "STFU" which he says was in his head and was told to say it.  The EVP they remark says "kill you."

They hear a banging sound on the stairs which Zak alludes to in the commentary, but in the ep he just continues upstairs without listening or giving a second thought to what Aaron was saying...Of course Tiedemann would be upset if he was being maligned without being able to defend himself!  On the Polterpod they get "Richard" coming through twice.  A woman saying "help Richard".  But the help  sounds like something else.  There are 17 spirits here.  The spirit doesn't say "anybody" it says "entity or Emily."  Then again could this be an allusion to Emily??
 "Lester" comes through or is it "Ester"?? There's a light anomaly that is seen at the bottom left on around 28.04 seconds which goes into the wall when Aaron reacts to something.  See blue marking in second pic.

 The spirit says "behind you" not "run" which explains why Aaron turned back re anomaly.  Cos man there are two words heard not one syllable.  There appears to be a voice at 29.17.  Got a figure on the SLS was it being hanged, it seems to double over and flop down (but not in the correct room.  Also one in the closet.  Is that the closet that was burned in the fire that was located in Louise Tiedemann's room.  The spirit box says "it's cursed."

That shadow figure outside of the window when Billy was in the basement I saw ages ago passing by and looks to raise a hand and point forwards towards the left in front of herself. In the below marked yellow she faces and looks inside the window, before moving on and appears to be wearing a flowing dress, marked red in second pic.  (Sorry not good quality.)

It looks like a woman with her hair up in her bun and to me it was possibly Mrs Tiedemann as their have been reports of her wandering the house and I have mo idea why this wasn't alluded to in the show.  Also I thought of Mrs Danvers from Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.  Remember when they used to place a camera outside of the building when they were filming before they entered, well they don't do that anymore.  So why didn't he place one there if Zak saw three figures outside of the window.  I felt that this figure could have been residual but 'it' appeared to be looking right at Billy, or if residual then would've been peering from outside the window, then again the gap outside between the window makes you think of whether it was residual.

The house was purchased in 1968 by the Romano family and they coincidentally also had six children.  It has been stated that there were human bones found in the closet of the house in 1975 and was actually a scam, planted there by the owner Sam Muscatello, to garner publicity for the house.
On Paranormal Lockdown John Tenney mentions the story of the illegitimate daughter and how his feelings were being affected;  seeing a figure.  Dee and John Romano featured on this and recall seeing a little girl in a white dress and playing with her.
https://mila255.blogspot.com/2016/03/paranormal-lockdown-13-franklin-castle.html

Also this post from Facebook by Erratic Thinking is very informative and interesting and makes reference to an Emielie, as I said I hear 'Emily'.  The psychic is also mentioned as Eleanora Bernstein who came up with the story of Hannes being a monster.
https://www.facebook.com/ErraticThinking/posts/165022706971724:0

Doctor Who 12.10 "The Timeless Children"

                                       
This time for the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) it's another matter of life and death and as the Master (Sacha Dhawan) tells her about the story of the Doctor's regeneration and how the baby was found by Tecteun (Seylan Baxter) and then one day she fell from the cliff just like Brendan in the previous ep, she finds her regenerating and having to get to the bottom of this.  Finding out how to regenerate and splice genes until she found a way of doing this and it worked.  She experimented on herself and then made a group of twelve, no more than twelve and created 'The Division.'  It all seems so messing with genes and stuff, you know coming up with genetic engineering or whatever you want to call it, and create a superior race.  At least that's how it came across.  With the Master showing the Doctor how she is the Timeless Child, erm didn't we all say that eps ago!! She's unwilling to believe she is since they played together and how she couldn't be that orphan. Thus turning the whole Doctor Who canon and mythology on its head.  In our time this means that there were many generations of her in female form even before Doc Thirteen.

So the Cybermen arrive to take over Gallifrey on the invitation of The Master as he's scheming to take over the Cyberium for himself and the Death Particle that is carried by Ashad (Patrick O'Kane) inside of him.  The particle being capable of destroying all organic matter.  This is what his end goal is, to became AIs without any organic part left inside of them.  Which the Master doesn't think very intelligent as they all want to become robots, that's all.  His scheme on the other hand as he demonstrates by shrinking Ashad is to make the Cybermen invincible by allowing them to generate.  Thus never dying.
                                        
The others hide out in the Cyberman shells to escape and save themselves from the Cybermen discovering them.  As Ashad checks out the suits but misses them as they arrive at Gallifrey.  Ryan (Tosin Cole)  Ethan (Matt Carver) and Ko Shamus (Ian McElhinney) all try to take out as many as they can and run around the camp, but as Ethan thinks it's the end for him as the others arrive and shoot the Cybermen, revealing it's the gang from the ship.  Then searching for the Doctor, Yaz (Mandip Gill) is the first to go through, well she would be wouldn't she.  Think she's still trying to prove a point here of being brave enough to do whatever.  As seen from the time she had her flashback in ep 5.  The same ep where the Doctor met the other version of herself.  Do we really like the idea of so many Doctors around.

Inside the Matrix the Doctor is shown her memories but only what the Matrix wants her to see, as we end up to last ep where Brendan was being destroyed of his memories by the Division, as the Doctor reads on the back of the clock.  So who exactly is the Division, Time Lords, Masters, since they take away memories when they're done with them.  But the Doctor is shown no more as the Master tells her the rest has been redacted (yeah yet to be made up).  As he leaves, the other Doctor, Ruth (Jo Martin) appears and tells her she can't give up and she can fight as only she knows herself.  Kick starting her memories as we see more flashbacks of the Doctors again and her past memories, thus escaping the Matrix and also meeting up with the others.

She tells them to set the explosives on the Cyberman ship and she wants to meet the Master one to one.  Ko Shamus finds the explosives begin detonation already and they have to run and go to the other TARDIS the Doctor found, which the Doctor says will take them back to Earth.  Ko Shamus has one explosive left but it can't be set on a timer and so the Doctor must use the Death Particle on the Cybermen Time Lords herself sending the others away.  Yaz doesn't want her to go but Ryan tells her to let her go.  But the Master turns up with his Cybermen.  She tells him she will destroy them all and he can't believe she will do that and destroy herself too in the process.  He knows her inside and out cos he knows she won't call his bluff since killing is not in her, not like the other version of her.  Ko Shamus turns up taking her place since this was his fault and not hers.  The universe needs her still.  As she enters the TARDIS and leaves wanting to rejoin her fam.  Her fam and the others who have already arrived back on Earth.

Obviously The Master will survive cos he has the Cyberium inside of him or some explanation will be made of his getting away.  Though we don't really get explanations in this show, or at least if we do, they're not the ones we're actually looking for or want.  "Everything you know is a lie!  Indeed it is/was.  All this, everything we know is turned on its head to fit this narrative version.  Is that one reason why the Doctor lies, thinking about it.  It was all too familiar in the time of Doctors Ten and Eleven.

As the Doctor wants to get back to Earth, the Judoon board the TARDIS and transport her back to a prison ship for life...oh yay Daleks next time!!  Well these companions have to meet them at least.

Also it's Graham's (Bradley Walsh) nifty idea to escape disguised as Cybermen since there was no other way out for them, though with the Cybermen able to detect the presence of humans why weren't they up on this especially when Ashad was right under their noses in the suits.  Thinking here of Clara and wasn't she also inside a Dalek.  We didn't get much of an explanation for that back then either.  Same thing here I quickly add with Ashad and who he really was, also with Brendan, his background as he spent so much time on the Division and regenerations.  Where was Ashad's story after all what was the point of having him as the lone Cyberman if he didn't have any context in his own life, why he wanted complete ascension and becoming a robot??!!

Ryan is now ready to use a gun, but in his defence it is to save themselves and the last survivors of humanity out here.  But the Doctor wasn't able to kill even if they were only Cybermen so that wasn't turned on its head here, though we don't see why Doctor Ruth was not shy at taking life.

So the Timeless Child stems from the regeneration of the Doctor over and over but we don't know why this happens only that this ability was created  Tecteun became her adopted mother.  The Division seems to be some secret Gallifreyan organization which resets memories when their time as part of this organization is done, when they have interfered in other lives/histories/affairs.  Thus Gat in Fugitive of the Judoon says she was in charge of Ruth.  There's a rehash of Time Lord history with reference to the Citadel, the Panopticon and the Matrix.  Rassilon is not eluded to.

Also see 1976’s The Brain Of Morbius.

Ghost Adventures "Horror in Biggs"

                                                     
Another demonic-centric episode and although they were specifically asked to help here which is good for the family concerned, much prefer the episodes where there is not so much demon-orientation and darkness involved.  This show has really veered off into that direction and though it is common knowledge demons exist and are various explanations for this, religious and otherwise.  There are still no answers or getting closer on the afterlife and death.  These are not the kind of next logical progression in investigations since all that's happening is just repetition on what's gone before.  There needs to be some sort of line drawn for how many episodes can be about demons and how many are about other paranormal phenomena, such as spirits etc.

This one centred on Torrie in Biggs, California and how he was being constantly attacked by a demon, they referred to as 'he.'  There wasn't any explanation, research on how these attacks began, came to be.  Was it the land, the area, was he generally targeted as he was being affected and not his wife, Gloria.  She didn't experience anything and wasn't sure to believe him until her husband recorded the encounter on the phone and she heard noises relating to sexual activity.  Also not explained or investigated was how their neighbour was affected also and how she was driven to run from her house, only to be killed.  Torrie's words were significant when it came to this sad death when he said of himself, "the closer I come to death I believe..."  To think she probably felt this was her one chance to escape the demon and live, it took that away from her by taking her life.

Zak preferred to explore the area and left Aaron and Billy to investigate in Torrie's house and then high-tailed it outta there after they found that tall figure and the light that accompanied it.  It wasn't debunked as being a human lighting up, or anything like that.  They were experiencing camera/equipment problems so it's difficult to say conclusively what it was or wasn't.  No exploration of the history of the property, area etc as said.

The stairs where Susanne found her brother, did anyone have a flashback, deja vu, to the Demon House stairs, or was it just my mind that went there for some reason.  Since it looked like a generally creepy staircase.  All in all that town did look creepy though and didn't see many people around even when they were driving through to where the canal was during the day.

All they did was effectively confirm Torrie's experiences and that he was being affected by something demonic.  When they were getting the readings on his leg, did anyone check his back when he was having a feeling there?  No voices came through aside from the growling and I'm sure something was said on the blue tooth (see below.)  At least Torrie was rid of his demon by the Bishop's exorcism and hopefully it was the end of this nightmarish ordeal for him.  Though it was only Jay who returned to film this, what was Zak doing and why didn't he come back?  Leading Jay to have nightmares after this.

Also the figure seen, did it really look like a shadow/black figure or was it again something/someone human??  The figure on the SLS looked as if it was touching Torrie's foot/leg and really attacking, beating down on him.  When Aaron and Billy use the blue tooth device and Billy's phone for Torrie to ask questions, at around 33.01 it's not a growl but the voice says something along the lines of "you're askin' me" when they tell Torrie to ask its name.  It definitely isn't a growl.  Zak feels a sharp pain go through him which Aaron confirms he felt as well like a spear or arrow go through his head.

How many times did Zak say "situation."

RE my mention of Demon House and those stairs, seems synchronicity was on the cards again - or was it??

@Zak_Bagans

·

Feb 29 on Twitter:

"While the network is still investigating how and why this happened to THIS particular episode I couldn’t help but compare these two cases especially when the “Horror in Biggs” felt like the Demon House investigation when I was there and have compared the two in recent interviews."

So I typed and posted this before I saw his tweets, you know being blocked 'n' all! HA!